Louisville Suspends Coordinator Who Received Wake Forest Game Plan

By The Associated Press

Dec. 16, 2016

Louisville suspended Lonnie Galloway, a co-offensive coordinator, for the Citrus Bowl after a review of how he handled Wake Forest game plans that he received from the since-fired Demon Deacons broadcaster Tommy Elrod.

Tom Jurich, Louisville’s athletic director, announced Galloway’s suspension on Friday, saying in a release that the information “should not have been received by anyone at the University of Louisville.”

He added, “We did not do what should have been done,” noting that Louisville did not seek the information from Wake Forest.

Jurich said he regretted what had happened and that “the right and ethical thing would have been for us not to accept the information.” Jurich also reiterated that Coach Bobby Petrino has been “firm” in asserting he did not know about information being provided.

Jurich said that he had been in contact with the Atlantic Coast Conference and that the school would accept any appropriate decisions from Commissioner John Swofford.

Galloway, in his first season as Louisville’s co-coordinator and receivers coach, and Elrod were assistants at Wake Forest in 2011 and 2012. Galloway will miss the Citrus Bowl, which pits No. 15 Louisville (9-3) against No. 19 Louisiana State (7-4) on Dec. 31 in Orlando, Fla.

Louisville, Virginia Tech and Army are the only schools to have publicly confirmed their involvement in the scandal, in which Wake Forest determined that Elrod had leaked or attempted to leak game-plan information to opponents. Elrod was fired from his job as the analyst on radio broadcasts of Demon Deacons games.

Officials at Indiana said Friday that it had not been implicated in Wake Forest’s investigation, after conducting an investigation of its own to confirm that finding.

Wake Forest officials have said they had contacted every school that might have been involved in the scandal, and Indiana Athletic Director Fred Glass said Wake Forest Athletic Director Ron Wellman had told him the Hoosiers were not on that list. Indiana played Wake Forest in each of the past two seasons.

The A.C.C. has promised to “do its due diligence” in reviewing Wake Forest’s findings. The league’s spokeswoman, Amy Yakola, did not respond Friday to a request for comment on that review.

Elrod’s lawyer, the former Wake Forest player James Quander, has not commented since the school’s review was announced on Tuesday, and Elrod has not returned phone calls or text messages seeking comment.

Wake Forest began its review after documents related to its game plan for the Louisville game on Nov. 12, which the Cardinals won, 44-12, were discovered at Louisville’s stadium before the game.

Coach Dave Clawson revealed four days later that the review into the security of his program had begun but did not accuse Louisville of taking the information.

The school announced its findings Tuesday night, absolving the football staff and players and pinning the blame solely on Elrod — a player in the 1990s and an assistant coach under Jim Grobe who went into broadcasting when he was not retained during the transition to Clawson after the 2013 season.